


Blood and Nectar

by Sassaphrass



Category: Kings (TV 2009)
Genre: Angst, Gen, Introspection, Jack is not in a happy place, Post-Series
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-31
Updated: 2015-07-31
Packaged: 2018-04-12 07:15:51
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 375
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4470182
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Sassaphrass/pseuds/Sassaphrass
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In his captivity, Jack considers the butterfly.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Blood and Nectar

It is well that butterflies are the sign of kingship. Butterflies are a strange and varied group of creatures. In the wide world there are many insects that drink nectar, but butterflies also have among their number those that drink blood, sweat, even a certain rare species that subsists solely on tears drunk straight from the eyes of animals (or men).

 

So, perhaps Jack is more royal than he had been led to believe.

 

It's amazing the varied interests a man can develop when his life is whittled down to a single room and his previous preoccupations are forbidden. War, sex, and history are not the sort of thing an imprisoned prince is encouraged to pass the time reading about.

 

The books on insects and butterflies are innocuous enough to be allowed in.

 

The monarch butterfly is a surprisingly good choice to represent his father it turns out. As a caterpillar it eats only the poisonous milkweed and the poison remains inside it until it dies. That's what the orange of it's wings indicates: poison, eat me and suffer. David too, can be a monarch, he had supped of poison against his will but now finds himself above such things, unaffected by that which protects the king and causes others to suffer, and so a king himself. The same species.

 

Michelle is a Cabbage White Butterfly. One of those plain butterflies you see around in the dog days of summer. Unremarkable in many ways perhaps, but beautiful and more hardy than she seems. Certainly more hardy than the frail relatives who flutter about with their demented appetites.

 

Mother would be something grander than a monarch butterfly though Jack has no idea what that might be, after all Monarchs as a species really, if you think about it, is not anything to crow about. His father may be king but it was his mother who made him regal.

 

Jack is no doubt one of those abhorent species that's lives on blood or tears or some other such perversion and yet for his bloodthirstiness dies twice as easily as his more pedestrian counterparts.

 

Butterflies. Yes, it is a proper metaphor for kings. They are delicate creatures, and yet do not die as easily as one might expect.

**Author's Note:**

> Annual- going through fics folder and posting stuff I forgot about FOR THE WIN!!
> 
> Butterflies are actually fucking metal. There really is a species that only drinks blood and actually there are lots of species that are attracted to rotting animals and other disgusting things.


End file.
